Avellaneda Award

PMRA’s newest award, given once every three years, for the best article on the Global South, and the first of its kind for the association.

Most public management scholarship has historically centered on the U.S. and Western Europe. The Avellaneda Award, launching in 2026 for articles published between 2021 and 2025, is PMRA’s explicit acknowledgment that some of the field’s most important questions are playing out in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It’s named for Claudia Avellaneda, an Indiana University scholar who immigrated from Colombia and has spent her career studying municipal governance and mayoral performance across Latin America, exactly the kind of work this award exists to spotlight. Because it’s triennial, winning it is rare by design: the 2026 presentation marks the first time this award has ever been given.

2026 Winner

“‘Honor List’ and ‘Shame Roll’: Quasi-Experimental Evidence of the Effect of Performance Feedback under Political Control” (Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 33, No. 1, January 2023, pp. 122–138).

Wenchi Wei

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Chengwei Wang

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Wenkang Zhai

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Wenzhao Li

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Honorable Mention

“Decentralization and Corruption in Public Service Delivery: Local Institutional Arrangements That Can Help Reduce Governance Risks” (Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 34, No. 2, April 2024, pp. 238–254).

Alan Zarychta

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Michelle E. Benedum

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Emily Sanchez

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Krister P. Andersson

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART)

Eligibility & Application Process

To be eligible for consideration, an article must:

Be published in JPART or PPMG
Address public management, governance, or administrative systems in the Global South
Fall within the designated eligibility period for the applicable award cycle

The award is open to single-authored and co-authored articles. There is no public nomination or application process for the Avellaneda Award — eligible articles are identified and reviewed by the PMRA Awards Committee.

The inaugural award was presented at the 2026 Public Management Research Conference. Eligible articles were published in Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART) or Perspectives on Public Management and Governance (PPMG) between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2025.

Subsequent awards will be presented every three years, with eligibility periods aligned accordingly. For example, the 2029 award will consider articles published between January 2026 and December 2028, and the 2032 award will consider articles published between January 2029 and December 2031.

Assessment Criteria

Articles are evaluated based on the extent to which they:

Make a substantive contribution to public management scholarship focused on the Global South
Demonstrate theoretical and conceptual significance
Exhibit methodological rigor and analytical clarity
Provide meaningful empirical insight into governance or administrative systems
Contribute to comparative, international, or globally relevant public management research

Award & Committee

The inaugural Avellaneda Award was presented at the 2026 Public Management Research Conference, held June 4–6, 2026, at American University in Washington, D.C. Recipients receive:

$500 USD cash award
Formal recognition at the PMRC Awards Ceremony
Feature recognition in the May conference edition of Management Matters

Award Committee Chair (2026): Sebawit Bishu, University of Washington

Past Recipients

This is a new award, presented for the first time in 2026. Past recipient information will appear here beginning with the next award cycle in 2029.

Public Management Research Association